Case Studies

City of Hamilton, ON, CAN

Estimating ROI of a City-Wide Implementation

In 2005, the City of Hamilton produced a 2005 Life-Cycle State of the Infrastructure (SotI) Report on Public Works Assets. The purpose was to evaluate the current state of various public works assets within the City, and to determine the level of sustainable funding to continue providing the services supported by these assets. This was a strategic document, based on a top-down approach.

The next step was to develop a tactical document that would assist in analyzing and developing various investment strategies, but still remain at a fairly high level. This tactical step was accomplished by the Harfan/Stantec team through the use of Harfan Technologies’ Integrated Decision Support System (Harfan IDSS). This software allows you to develop tactical plans on large geographic areas taking into account multiple options with respect to assets over their individual life-cycles, and just as importantly the timing of these interventions. This project also quantified the potential benefits of an integrated approach to management renewal of those underground assets in the public Right-of-way (ROW). Assets considered were: roads, water, wastewater and stormwater.

Using an IDSS can assist in the top-down approach, as well as the bottom-up approach, by filling a great need for analysis at all levels. It allows you to change a “window of opportunity” into a “window of multiple opportunities”, all the while minimizing costs, risks and inconvenience to the community. This project has clearly demonstrated the value of such an assessment tool, with an ROI of 12 - 31% depending on which criteria the calculation is based on.

Finally, the project clearly showed the value and benefits of such software systems in infrastructure management, in terms of facilitating analysis and decision-making as well as cost savings for the community. In conclusion, the ROI or cost-recovery of implementing an IDSS is incredibly short and is measured in terms of a few months at the most, if not even shorter than that. It can therefore easily provide a payback period within a single budget cycle for a municipality the size of Hamilton.
 

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